When the Fireworks Start
by Replica Velocity a.k.a. X5 714
Summary: AU Founder's Day: A split second changes everything. Elena and Damon find themselves grieving for the loss of someone close to them both as the curse of the Petrova bloodline threatens their world.
1. Part One

Disclaimer: I don't own the Vampire Diaries, the CW and Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec do. This story had been jangling in my head since May so I'm doing to get it out and it will only span until the end of 'The Return' time wise with hints of Memory Lane. So it'll be a short multi chaptered AU fic. There will be Elena/Stefan, Anna/Jeremy and hints of Elena/Damon as well as Stefan/Katherine.

Warning: Major Character Death

* * *

**When the Fireworks Start**

Part One

* * *

It was irony of the cruellest order. Anna ran, determined to warn her mother's killer of all people. If only Elena and Stefan hadn't bumped into her while she was warning Damon of the impending attack from the tomb vampires she could be finding Jeremy and getting him to safety.

_But the Founding families excluding Jonathan Gilbert didn't deserve to die for the actions of their ancestors; Anna had come to realize that after falling for Jeremy- a Gilbert of all people._

* * *

_Jeremy wiped his hands on his pants and glanced up in surprise. "Stefan, if this is about my sister I don't want to hear it"_

_He couldn't warn Elena's brother while there were vampires everywhere and Stefan led Jeremy back in the guy's bathroom- at least he had found Jeremy inside the Grill and not out in the open. "That doesn't matter- you're in danger"_

* * *

"_For one hundred and fifty years Mystic Falls has been the kind of town everyone wants to call home. Safe, prosperous, welcoming. And we have the Founders to thanks for that. That's why I'd like to dedicate this evening fireworks display to their legacy" In amongst the crowd, the tomb vampires watched the Mayor's speech with colder hearts and their doubts were erased. Their revenge would be what permanently destroyed the founders- through the descendants that they worked so hard to safeguard. The Founders who had been untouchable back in 1864 for the same reasons that their descendents would die. Everyone started to clap. "Enjoy the show!"_

_Bright lights launched into the night sky and the fireworks exploded into life, short lived and vibrant until they faded into the night. _

* * *

_Lifting the gear, the door behind him burst open and John Gilbert turned to see Anna, the vampire who had mislead his nephew into believing vampires were more than monsters._

"_You've no idea how much I hate doing this but do you have any idea how stupid you're being?" Anna questioned him, her hatred blatantly clear._

_John disregarded her and turned back to what he was doing, setting the invention up to incapacitate the vampires and end the town's problems once and for all. "I do and you will see in a moment how wrong you are"_

"_It's not the time for an ego John- I'm trying to help-" The invention started to run and an humanly inaudible screeching emanated from the invention and Anna screamed in pain, kneeling to the ground._

* * *

_Rushing to join up with Alaric, Damon fell to the ground clutching his ears and Elena was at his side immediately. "Damon, what's wrong?" Elena asked, frantic._

_Damon couldn't answer her at first. "My head... damn that witch-" he couldn't manage another word as the pain became too great._

* * *

_Anna writhed on the floor as John Gilbert pulled out the syringe of vervain. "Please make it stop"_

_Instead of stopping the pain, John ruthlessly injected her with vervain as did the deputies through the crown to the fallen vampires. Had he caught he tonight in the basement a stake would have given her a swift brutal end. But seeing Anna had made John Gilbert decide that she would burn for bringing all of this into his nephew's life._

_

* * *

_

One moment Stefan had been trying to warn him and the next he was sliding down the wall, struggling in pain.

"_Stefan- what's wrong?" Jeremy asked in alarm as Stefan's face contorted, some unseen force tormenting him._

_

* * *

_

A deputy approached Elena and the nearly unconscious Damon but the deputy was waylaid by Alaric. "Hey- I've got this one, there's one more other there" He handed the deputy the stake. "Take this, go... go!" Alaric got to them and helped Elena hold Damon up.

_Elena was worried and she tightened her grip around the bad Salvatore brother who had become her friend. She didn't want to think what would have happened if Alaric hadn't stopped the deputy. "I don't know what happened- he just dropped"_

"_Yeah, he's not the only one- the cops have gotten anyone who's gone down and injected them with vervain"_

"_What?" Elena asked, fearful for Stefan and even Anna the vampire who had once tried to kidnap her to use her blood to feed her mother. She and Alaric helped Damon down a stairwell that led away from the round up. "They're rounding up all the vampires" _

* * *

_Jeremy wasn't too comfortable but he knew that Stefan was in pain and he tried to support his sister's boyfriend the best he could, not that anything he did seemed to help. If this had been Anna he'd want Elena to do whatever it took and it was a relief to him that he still thought she would. The door opened and the Sheriff's deputies came in and gave Stefan a shot of something and dragged him away. "What are you doing?" Jeremy demanded and fought the sudden grip of a deputy holding him back as they took Stefan out of eyeshot. "Leave him alone!" He was no match for the older stronger man and Jeremy struggled helplessly._

* * *

_The vampires were all dragged one by one into the building's basement and John Gilbert walked down the steps, victory was so very close._

"_The device is done- the only thing keeping them down is the vervain" Anna listened, unable to move and she couldn't believe that just putting everyone down there was the vampire hating Gilbert's endgame. "We don't have much time, let's finish this" Something was sloshing on them and with dread Anna could smell the gasoline. They were going to go up in flames like her mother would have and Anna tried not to cry. She wouldn't give John Gilbert the satisfaction._

_She watched John Gilbert turn to leave when a hand grabbed his ankle. It was Stefan Salvatore and John stared down at him, his emotions unrecognizable. "Stefan" There was something nearly tender in the way he said it and Anna remembered his love affair with Katherine's descendant Isobel Flemming. Could he show mercy to his niece's lover the same way he did to Isobel? "You can head up" John told the deputy. "I'll take it from here"_

_Anna couldn't leap and tear John Gilbert's throat up as he reached into his jacket and pulled up a stake, she could only beg her vervain immobilised limbs to move so she could save Stefan. It would kill Elena if Stefan Salvatore died and it would destroy Damon who swore to hate his brother. That bastard was going to break another family apart._

"_Please don't, please" Stefan begged and the other vampire had the worst seat in the gasoline covered basement as John Gilbert raised the stake and pushed it down through Stefan's chest. It was almost graceful in a terrible, dark way as Stefan's skin was literally covered in veins and darkened and Anna tried not to retch at the look of pleasure on John's face as he stood and left Stefan's body on the ground and Stefan's peaceful sleeping face was turned towards Anna._

_Her one small comfort was that John Gilbert was now retreating up the stairs, splashing the gasoline as it went and not getting to watch her die._

_The fire licked down the stairs and raced towards the vampires and Anna gave into the tears._

* * *

Elena put a supporting hand on Damon's shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"It was like needles running over my head... I knew we couldn't trust that witch" Whatever threats Damon had been about to make against Bonnie he abstained from after seeing Elena's concern. She had enough on her plate without him getting mad over her lying witchy friend. Besides getting even was better than getting mad. "It's gone now"

Returning from the crowd, Alaric joined them. "I saw at least five vampires go down, they're taking them into your family's old building"

"Where's Stefan?" asked Damon and Elena at the same time and right of this moment Damon couldn't care if anyone saw that he cared about his brother. He had never given much thought to Stefan's death, only eternity of misery and Damon told himself that was why he had to help his little brother. Not because he cared or anything as lame and pathetic as that.

Elena and Damon ran across the street and were stopped by the sight of John Gilbert. "Where's Stefan?" Elena asked.

"With the rest of them, like he should be- it's over for Stefan" John said calmly with a nod to Damon who sneered back and froze, uneasy at something in John's expression.

"You're crazy" Elena said, shaking her head in the disbelief that he could be related to someone filled with such hatred.

Her accusation didn't rattle John. "Am I? I've been doing what should have been done a hundred and forty five years ago- this is the right thing Elena" Elena could never believe that and Damon exchanged a look at her and the old building that held his brother, burning. "Go ahead" John said. "You won't make it out and it'll save me the trouble of killing you myself"

Damon wasn't about to contradict him, right now Stefan was all that mattered. "You know the building- is there another way in?"

She nodded. "Utility door there's one around the side" Elena went to follow Damon but her uncle/father grabbed her before she could take two steps.

"You take one more step and I'll alert those deputies that they missed a vampire"

"I'm asking you not to, please" begged Elena, this was Stefan on the line and Elena wasn't going to let him die.

"That doesn't mean anything to me"

Elena was sick of this and of him and his hypocrisy and use the one line that she hated to use out of deference to her real father, the man who raised ."As my father it should, as the man who still loves my mother, the vampire it should" She broke away from him or he let her go and Elena pushed him to the back of her mind as she went after Damon to save Stefan.

* * *

Ripping open the door, Damon readied himself. In and out with Stefan... "You're going in there?"

Damon gave Bonnie his deadliest glare, he didn't have the time for her when what she had done had saved the town but put the brother he loved and hated in danger.

"Stefan's in there and he's my brother Bonnie, what can I say under this cool smooth leather exterior lies a heart" There was no amusement in his voice as he plunged into the building and Bonnie watched in shock. He cared.

The door was too hot for even Damon to hold onto the handle and he tried, but it hurt. He should have eaten before he left home.

Suddenly the doorknob was colder to touch and Damon opened it and ran down the stairs. He couldn't see Stefan even with the clear path cut through by the flames but he could see Anna who he quickly helped to the stair well. He grabbed the back of her neck before she could pull herself up and slowly climb from this inferno. "Where's Stefan?"

Anna stared back at him, her tears illuminated by the flames and she pointed. Letting her go to escape Damon found his brother and screamed, inhuman. She was the first out and held up a hand to prevent an attack from Bonnie, refusing to meet Elena's eyes as Damon came out holding a unburnt body and walked forward slowly, as if he were a zombie and not a vampire.

When Elena caught sight of Stefan, lifeless in Damon's arms, Bonnie had to catch her best friend and cradle her gently, the guilt eating her up inside. She had wanted to fix her mistake so that her Grams death hadn't been for nothing and Bonnie wouldn't have cared if Damon had died. But Stefan, it was with a sickening jolt that she acknowledged that she didn't hate him and that it was yet again, too late to undo a mistake. She could have warned the brothers so they wouldn't be out and exposed to the invention. "I'm sorry Elena, I am so sorry"

"It's not your fault" Anna said, still recovering from the effects of the vervain. "You aren't the one who shoved a stake into his heart- John Gilbert did that"

* * *

One knife, two knife, keep her peace and not strike until he stays still.

"..how it ruined her. I never would have sent her to Damon if I'd known she had wanted to turn. It's my fault. Elena I saved you from heartache, I'm telling you this because I hoped that you would be able to understand"

Finally John put his hand down and Katherine managed a genuine, "Thank you"

"Can I help?"

Katherine glanced to the ugly ring that protected the Gilberts through the years and then back on John's face. "Sure" she said and slammed the knife down severing the fingers and John Gilbert's free pass at death and slammed him against the wall, revealing herself and her fury.

Staring back at her, terrified, John at last got it right. "Katherine?" he stammered.

Her eyes changed and the tiny veins encroached and Katherine managed a terrible, wrathful smile. "Hello John, good bye John" And Katherine slammed the blade in.

Outside the Gilberts house, Anna helped Elena who she didn't blame for being as much a conversation as her missing costume. Elena was numb- she had just lost Stefan. And Anna hurt when she thought about losing Jeremy in the cruel way Elena had lost Stefan. Seeing it was the only torture that Elena had been spared. Or it was worse because Elena's imagination would torture her in the way Anna's had when she had found her mother and Harper... her long journey to save her mother for nothing.

Elena couldn't open the door her hand with the key was shaking so much that Anna helped her and they walked in the front door as someone groaned from the kitchen and clattered to the ground.

* * *

**To Be Continued...**

* * *

Oh, to not be a slave to my plot bunnies. Okay feel free to let me know what you think.


	2. Part Two

Disclaimer: I don't own the Vampire Diaries.

* * *

**When the Fireworks Start: Part Two**

* * *

Elena heard the body clutter and the noise shocked her into life. She could see her brother's girlfriend freeze in fear and she remembered that Jeremy was in the house as well- Alaric said he had left Jeremy in his room... "Anna, go check on Jeremy"

"I should go- you're only human"

"And so is Jeremy, go" said Elena, pointing as she slowly edged towards the kitchen and whoever had fallen. She wasn't prepared for the sight of her biological father and Stefan's killer bleeding out in the kitchen, the bloody knife not far from his prone form. She knew she was supposed to be upset and grab the phone to call for help but Elena couldn't. She just stood, unable to move and watched the bloodstain grow bigger as if transfixed. Elena broke out of her reverie when she heard Anna yell that Jeremy was okay.

As much as Elena wanted to let the man not fit to be her father die, she couldn't and she grabbed a towel and the phone. Elena pressed the towel to John's wound to slow the bleeding and dialled.

"911, what's your emergency?"

Elena couldn't hesitate. "I need an ambulance to 2104 Maple Street..." she trailed off when John struggled to speak and she frowned, leaning closer and then Elena spun around on him midsentence. She blinked and she couldn't make a sound.

She had known Katherine was her mirror image and had prepared herself for what it would be one day to meet her vampire ancestor.

All Elena could do was breath rapidly, it was like the air in the room would vanish and she needed to hoard the air. Hoard it so that when it was gone she would have a few more seconds to come to grips with herself.

"He deserves to die" Katherine casually said, making no attempt to get closer to Elena. There was no playfulness in the vampire when she looked at John, the vampire who had torn Stefan and Damon apart clearly had only one desire with him.

In contrast, Katherine's glances to Elena were inquisitive with the hint of sorrow and Elena felt empathy for her vampiric double. She had abandoned the brothers and left them... but Katherine had loved Stefan, Elena believed that.

Elena gathered up her courage. "I know he does Katherine and what's happened to Stefan hurt me and you lost him too... I understand"

Katherine narrowed her eyes and in the blink of an eye she was crouching down towards Elena, a hand caressing her cheek in an eerie imitation of the love a mother would show a daughter. "No Elena, you don't" Then the vampire blurred into the air and out the front door, it slammed behind her as Jeremy and Anna came down.

* * *

"I know Carol Lockwood is going to want answers but all I can think about right now is Caroline" Liz Forbes was crying and Damon took her into his arms and he could hear his platitudes and he meant them. But he felt hollow inside and when the sheriff pulled away, Liz stared at him strangely and Damon didn't need his damn reflection to notice the tears.

He knew that it was a risk to tell Liz that his brother had died and that it could lead her to vampires. But whether she knew the truth or not, she was his friend and the one who knew what it was like to have a responsibility and let her emotions and pride get in the way. Damon had studied the mother and daughter and how tense and distant they were, it was like watching a human version of his relationship with Stefan after his little brother had forced him to feed.

Damon couldn't take that pride and hatred back, the follow through on putting Stefan through misery and pain when he had always known that his brother had done it to not be alone... even if Stefan wouldn't admit it. "That device of John's- it must have been on a higher audio frequency that humans can't hear but it was fallible to anyone who could hear better... Stefan went down when that device went off... he's always hears like a bat... he heard it and when they thought he was a vampire..."

A pair of hospital staff walked past them and Liz waited until they had passed. "I didn't know Damon and I was going on when you've-"

"Hey... hey, it's not your fault- you tried to stop John because it was a dangerous plan when we should have had Stefan, Caroline and the members of our families safe rather than bait. He's the reason my brother died and I have to live knowing that one of the vampires could have regained consciousness and done something..." Trailing off, Damon felt shame for lying to Liz, twisting it around for her to know but he had to. Someone had to remember that Stefan had died and that his brother deserved to be mourned, Damon didn't want to feel the hurt alone. He had to do something for Caroline though. Annoying and hyper neurotic the bauble headed blonde might be, she was Liz's daughter and Damon wasn't going to let John get to do this to his friend.

He walked from the Sheriff under the pretence of seeing to Caroline while she dealt with the horror fallout from this night and crossed paths with the other reason for Stefan's death trying to comfort Elena and walked straight past them. "I'm going to save her- if you have a problem with that Bonnie, well I really don't care because I'm just dying to repay you for everything you've done" threatened Damon and he could see Elena was struggling between wanting to defend Bonnie and being upset with her.

Damon didn't care for Bonnie's guilt ridden nod of agreement... it was Elena who said the golden words that before tonight, he would have used as a victory to use against Stefan when he next marked his territory. _You can have Elena, Stefan- just be back in your brooding and eating woodland animals glory, _he thought.

"Do it"

* * *

Her Jeremy was asleep and Anna happily watched him, like a kid in a candy store only it was the person she loved. A Gilbert and the irony- her mother had understood in the end and Anna wished that the original John Gilbert could have been like Jeremy. Not turning away but embracing Mama when the compass pointed to her and helping her get away.

The door downstairs unlocked and Anna couldn't help the anger at the interruption when she came down the stairs and saw Elena closing the door.

But there was something off about Elena and her hair was Anna's first tip off and she snarled. "Katherine"

Giggling, Katherine looked pleased. "You don't sound surprised Annabelle... how's Jeremy?" she asked provoking a shot of white hot rage from Anna who went straight for the throat and hurled Katherine into the couch. "You shouldn't be so sensitive at your age- I'm not going to hurt Jeremy Gilbert my dear little Annabelle, you love him and that's good enough for me"

Scoffing, Anna kept her guard up. "I loved Mama and you had her killed by Jonathan Gilbert or was that just for the irony" The scorn wasn't for Katherine alone when Anna shared the need to scorn herself for her one time motivations in befriending and courting Jeremy. For the irony of using his Gilbert blood to restore her mother.

"Annabelle, you are how old, a little old to be needing your mother- I must admit getting rid of Pearl was regretful but it was the only way to... well to safeguard your pretty new life with Jeremy among other things" said Katherine and they both heard the sound of the car pulling up. Before Anna could stop Katherine, she was gone.

* * *

Elena winced as Damon stalked backwards and forwards, fury etched into his features that would have terrified her if she could feel more than the empty void she had felt since Damon had carried Stefan's body away. "She tried to kill John- she wasn't after this"

"No, of course not- Katherine loves to play games and she played one to get rid of the tomb vampires- only way 'Uncle' John could have gotten his hands on the device and she got burnt when he added rules" sneered Damon and the tiny dark veins spider webbed from his eyes in a rare loss of control. "I'm going to ignore her, draw her out..."

"And then what Damon, she's older than you and she hasn't and I can't-" Elena pleaded with the older Salvatore brother, pleading with him not to do it. She couldn't lose Damon to anything because he was important to her, her friend and whatever else Elena wouldn't allow herself to feel, Damon getting killed was too much. "Please Damon"

Inside the boarding house, it was harder to fight her grief when Elena knew that upstairs in his bedroom, Stefan's body was laying on his bed. The one that they had kissed on, the one they had- and Elena couldn't go through saying good bye to his body.

Anna was curled up on the lounge with Jeremy beside her and Elena didn't begrudge her brother his ending.

"She's right- Katherine is too strong" interjected Jeremy hesitantly as if unsure of his place in all of this and then Elena's brother became more confident. It was his job to be strong in all of this. "You can't do it alone"

"If he can even do it" Anna matched Damon's glare and crossed her arms. "You love Katherine and you couldn't drive a splinter through her"

"You were right yesterday Anna but not now, not when Katherine cost me this- I will find her, stake her, rip her head off- something poetic in Stefan's memory" swore Damon and there wasn't hesitation or weakness in him but his voice hitched slightly when he said Stefan's name, the memory of his brother enough the resolve him to do what he had to do. What he should have done. "But now I'm going to the crematorium with Stefan- my brother and I didn't get a funeral when we died in 1864... Stefan's going to get one; he wanted to be human so badly. I can at least give him this last human rite"

Elena nodded. "Then I'm going with you"

* * *

He couldn't stand the sight of them. John Gilbert watched as his nephew came into his hospital room hand in hand with the vampire who would eventually destroy Jeremy and turn him into a monster or leave him in hell, like his Isobel. He should have staked her alongside her mother and then again Stefan Salvatore.

* * *

**To Be Continued...**

* * *

I can only write this so often since most days I'm creatively drained through working on my second book and editing the first. It's a pet project, unedited besides a simple spell-check and read through and will only run for so long and get updated when I'm not zonked out. Thank you guys for being so patient and just rest assured knowing it will get completed even if it takes awhile. And the last scene will run into the next chapter when we see Jeremy and Anna question John on Katherine's return and Katherine and Damon meet again... expect major variations.

Please review because reviews are like chocolate, you don't need them but they are good all the same.

- Allison


	3. Part Three

Disclaimer: I don't own the Vampire Diaries and I apologize for the inconsistent writing in this chapter, side effect of adding lines here and there over years. This has a slightly longer but improved arc, but still no more than a total of ten chapters. Things will really start to heat up in the next few chapters.

* * *

**When the Fireworks Start: Part Three**

* * *

Elena fiddled with the radio stations at first, desperate for anything to fill the silence and distract her from the hollowing knowledge that Stefan was in the boot of the car, gently put there by the brother who had sworn undying misery on his little brother. Losing a love was one thing but to lose a brother... if she had lost Jeremy, Elena didn't know what she would have done. Her biological father owed his life to the arrangements for Stefan to have a dignified burial, not that Elena cared about Uncle John at the moment. The human cost had taken Tyler's dad, the mayor she had known her whole life and no matter how reasonable and calm Elena could be, she couldn't forgive the man she had been raised to see as an uncle. John Gilbert would never be her father, not where it counted.

"Just pick one, you hear a melancholy drenched pop song, you've heard them all" said Damon tiredly and his usual bite, natural sarcasm had gone missing. Sure, the vampire was trying to maintain the facade that everything was fine but his chiselled features couldn't disguise his anguish. For someone with over a century of vampirism under his belt, Damon was losing control as tiny spidery veins flourished around his reddened eyes.

Abandoning the radio, the teenager mustered an apologetic half smile as tears slipped unbidden down her face. "I didn't mean to-"

"I know Elena" Damon silenced her and swallowed. "I have a whole list of people to blame for Stefan's death, just like I did when Katherine was... I thought she was sealed in the tomb. But I could always tell myself Katherine knew how I felt about, her and that I loved her, back then of course" Interrupting would have given the suave vampire a chance to bury how he felt and Elena stayed silent as Damon turned off an exit. "He was my brother Elena, and I loved him- Katherine as conniving and manipulative as she is could never take that away. Although Stefan never got to hear from me how much I cared, what I'd give up for him- that my humanity doesn't exist" At that Damon eclipsed reproachful and pure pain entered his voice.

Pushing Damon Salvatore could be dangerous and Elena didn't know quite how to say what she was thinking, but she squeezed Damon's shoulder, offering him the comfort she needed to provide him as the vampire brought the car to a stop. He leaned in and Elena embraced him and the closeness wasn't romantic despite the feelings left unsaid. It was solace.

* * *

They had arrived at the crematorium and they stayed in the car for what seemed like hours as Damon broke down and Elena comforted him. When Stefan's brother was ready to admit to whatever followed his humanity not existing despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, she would be there. And this wasn't something either of them could do alone.

"I haven't got anything else to say to you, only that one day Jeremy- you will regret what you are doing"

Once upon a time, Uncle John's visits had been fun, unanticipated visits and comfort after the deaths of his parents. Jeremy missed the fun loving uncle but the man in the hospital bed, glaring at Anna and trying to get under his skin wasn't the same man. Grayson Gilbert might have been ashamed with his son for a relationship with a vampire and Jeremy couldn't control that but neither of them would ever know the answer. John didn't have the right to drag the dead into the argument.

Jeremy checked outside in the hospital hallway and when he saw no one, he closed and locked the door, confusing his girlfriend. He pulled out the vial in his pocket. "Do know what this is Uncle John- this is Anna's blood that I refused to take at the same time she wouldn't kill you because of me. Stefan wouldn't kill you because of Elena, my sister" Resolved, Jeremy quickly unscrewed the vial and drank the blood.

"Don't do it, Jeremy, you don't want to" Anna pleaded, she was frightened, and fear was finally registering in John.

"I'm doing this because I want my uncle to know something" said Jeremy to reassure the vampire and turned back to his uncle. "That blood- I'm going to keep drinking it. I want to stay human Uncle John but if anything happens to Anna or Damon, I'll kill myself and then you'll have a problem" It could have been considered desperation although Jeremy knew he had hit the marker when it came to his uncle's Achilles heel. Indeed, his uncle reclined back into the hospital bed and closed his eyes, as though pained.

Finally John sighed. "I understand" He cast a strange glace at Jeremy's girlfriend as though he were contemplative on her staying with his nephew despite a want to remain human. "Katherine wasn't supposed to stay in Mystic Falls after the tomb vampires died- Isobel tells me it's for Elena's own good"

Anna scoffed. "Nothing Katherine does is for the good of anybody... except for Katherine's own good"

"Your mother was leaving Mystic Falls and taking you far away from Jeremy, it wasn't my idea to kill her and the other one- although Katherine doesn't want you dead because of something she needs. It's why I'm telling you this because Isobel said that Katherine knows you wouldn't risk him and Elena by revealing her survival- they won't tell me anything else"

* * *

_**Salvatore Estate, Mystic Falls- 1864**_

* * *

Katherine had been running for a long time and she would let most people die for her. Better them than her and she acknowledged it with a heavy heart as she watched Pearl and John Gilbert escorting her, forever the gentleman from the window.

Speaking of perfect gentleman, the former doppelganger giggled in delight at Damon, who she knew wasn't asleep- restless in her rejection in her bed that night. Oh, Damon didn't understand she had come off Stefan and knowing that both the brothers she loved were hers.

She had spent days planning a compulsion dismissed as a dream the day the elder Salvatore brother became a vampire after his admission of wanting a human life with her. A blink of an eye for a vampire, so she compelled in a half asleep daze as he groggily awoke, that he would want to be with her forever, whatever the cost, covering it up with gentle kisses.

Unlike the others Katherine had led on, the Salvatore brothers meant something to her in a way nothing had since her suicide to escape the sacrifice and the slaughter of her family in Klaus's revenge.

Anger became a dangerous whip in her stomach and it churned at the memory of the charming and refined man she had fallen in love with, a one sided love it seemed as all the Original vampire had wanted her for was to break the curse. Katherine had been naught but a human chit for to play with and discard and she felt only lingering regret for the two men she had led on to escape her fate. She wasn't the original vampire; she loved the Salvatore brothers for more than their immediate purpose.

Katherine couldn't believe she had made the mistake not to kill the little vampire she had used to acquire her friendship with Pearl, Annabelle years ago, an accident of course and then Pearl's loyalties would be unquestionable. All these years and the Originals were finally honing in- Elijah corresponded with Pearl and had offered his vaunted word to leave her and her daughter untouched whilst he killed the other vampires the former doppelganger had turned. And had she not discovered the letter in the apothecary delivered her straight to Klaus, like Katherine would have to save herself.

Annabelle would live for the secret she carried, of a hunter to destroy her worst enemy before her descendents bore another doppelganger.

She stepped lightly to Damon's room and her sweet and innocent boy's world just lit up looking at her although he was different than the other boys, men she had toyed with who loved her, unrequited.

She trailed her hand on his chest. "I hope you'll forgive my rudeness, I was tired from the ball and I thought one brother would be enough tonight"

"Of course Miss Katherine" Damon flirted, playing as though she were an innocent girl, a prim and proper virginal maiden even though the elder Salvatore brother was the true innocent. He trusted that she loved him and she would never hurt him and the vampire could only fulfil a single belief.

* * *

_**Mystic Falls, Present Day**_

* * *

Katherine was out of options, and with Stefan's death she was fixated on the only two lives that mattered in the dull little town, all too quick to steal what didn't belong to them. Damon and Elena. Her doppelganger didn't threaten her sense of possessiveness because the girl was her blood and for a façade wanted to remain human which helped her pact with Elijah. They hated each other but they could work to save the girl with an elixir the prim gentleman had the intelligence to display shame at his presumption she should have trusted him to thinking she would die.

The elixir worked, thanks to Lucy and she had another ally even her Original vampire ally was unaware of and she glanced at her little box containing the flower appearing like a black rose bestowed by a witch in death. Its scent trapped in magical stasis inside her, broken by the ritual.

Her bloodline would turn human and Klaus would burn, unable to take her down with him. Esther apologized in contriteness but the Original Witch was hardly a pleasant woman in death, willing to murder her flesh and blood instead of restoring their humanity. Hers and her line was an apology; her crimes against nature's balance in the haughty tones of the witches were caused by damning Tatia Petrova's bloodline in addition to sacrificing her.

The ancestress had been alike to her human side and Elena's, a kind hearted person despite a man in the village taking her involuntarily, willing to love her new small child- a chance stolen from Katherine. Humanity wormed its way into an errant pain as Mason discussed offering up Brady reluctantly; it was the other werewolf's choice as the sacrifice- werewolves wanted the Originals dead for the millennia long feud. Her delusions that Mikael could save Elena dead years prior when he arrived in Mystic Falls to kill her descendent as though he had a right to shed Petrova blood.

It was easy to slip into the Gilbert house and to a sleeping Elena, Damon distracted by the finer details of a council meeting, a funeral. Katherine let up on suppressing her humanity to sit next to Elena, dried tears on her face.

"We're nearly at the end now" she whispered delicately, her only compulsion to keep her asleep and she wished that she could make her blood hate John Gilbert, so easy to turn him. The vampire sacrifice was to be Rose, Elijah unknowingly brought himself closer to destruction but it was her vengeance.

Rose had been conspiring to hand Elena over to Klaus and spidering veins crept to Katherine at a mere thought of her. "Better she die than I, and I'm sorry for what I must do but better everything in this world die than you"

Fortunately Damon was interested in getting back to her doppelganger descendent and she was quite willing to make do with Mason. His human self was pure and innocent and deserved what she stole- it would have always been Stefan because not even a human heartbeat could change the monster he had become or hers.

Katherine had carefully chosen her target, dripping vervain from vials and replacing it with flavoured water, following the quarry from the Lockwood estate. A memorial, a wake for the Mayor and Stefan and she smirked- very soon Damon would be a true human Founder without a cause except for lavish fundraisers.

Her prey was eager to get to her miraculously healed daughter and was going to play an instrumental role in protecting her from vampires. She tapped her prey on the shoulder and compelled a pliant acceptance of a slashed wrist, and then Katherine threw her into the lake, diving in a second later to drown the Sherriff Forbes of the twenty-first century, taking her last breath.

Five minutes later, she broke to the surface quietly. "Game on"

* * *

-**To Be Continued**-

* * *

Original writing, pun intended has become my ultimate passion but I will endeavour to complete this fic despite however many seasons. As for Katherine's dismissal of Elijah, I can see caring for the Salvatore brothers, her descendents because of how much she didn't want to give her child up (she even took Elena's place in 'Homecoming', instead of far wiser hanging back as her doppelganger took all the risks) but that's as far as it extends. And she'll swap his life for theirs or hers in a second- as much as we love the honourable Original, he didn't present Katerina with the same chance that he did Elena- and it's cruel that he didn't offer that to Elena or her to start with. One shouldn't have to prove they're willing to die stupidly.

But I loved Elijah's growth in season three to an admission of what he's done however this is based earlier, not to say his death is written in stone for this. Although, I don't think even jumping the shark would make me fond of Esther, responsible for a thousand years of misery and Alaric. Excuse me now, I must plan the next chapter, delivered sometime this century and cry about my favourite vampire hunter's death.


End file.
